Combination of cooking utensils

ABSTRACT

A combination of pots for cooking an entire meal at one time upon a single burner, the pots being placeable one upon the other so as to receive the heat from therebelow and cooking a food contained therewithin.

United States Patent Williams et al.

[54] COMBINATION OF COOKING UTENSILS [72] Inventors: James M. Wllllarnl;Help Williams, both of 805 N.E. 194th. Seattle, Wash. 98155 |22 1111111; July2.l969

1211 Appl. 110.; aaams US. Cl. ..99/448, 99/417 new oISearch .1:..99/44s, 308-312, 99/317, 339-340, 410, 413, 4111-417; 220/4, 17, v 64,66, 71, 82, 97, 97 B, 97 c [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS987,510 3/1911 Thorne ..99/4l0 2,985,095 5/1961 Pitavy .220/82X Feb.15,1972

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,071,608 6/1967 Great 1111mm QII..220/4Primary Examiner-William I. Price Assistant Examiner-Arthur 0. HendersonABSTRACT A combination of pots for cooking an entire meal at one timeupon a single burner, the pots being placeable one upon the other so asto receive the heat from therebelow and cooking a food containedtherewithin.

1 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures COMBINATION OF COOKING UTENSILS Thisinvention relates generally to cooking utensils.

It is generally well known, that the preparation of an average, entiremeal requires the service of several pots, each of which must be placedupon an individual burner of a stove so that the content thereof may becooked. Upon occasion, a homemaker will find that she requires severalmore pots of food to be cooking at the same time than the number ofburners provided by the stove, and accordingly she must wait until onefood item is cooked before she may remove the same from the burner andallow another food item to then have the burner for cooking. This is ofcourse objectionable in view that all of the food items may not beprepared at the same time.

According, it is the principle object of the present invention toprovide a combination of cooking utensils which will allow an entiremeal to be cooked at one time and upon a single burner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a combination ofcooking utensils comprised of pots which are placeable one over theother so as to utilize the heat from there below for cooking the foodcontained within each.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a combinationof cooking utensils wherein the foods are cooked with steam from waterin a bottom pot.

Yet a further object is to provide a combination of cooking utensilswhich will conserve on the consumption of burner fuel, and which willprovide the homemaker with less time to spend in the kitchen.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a combination ofcooking utensils wherein the food will also contain a greaternutritional value and that value will not be boiled out.

Other objects of the present invention are to provide a combination ofcooking utensils which is simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture,rugged in construction, easy to use and efficient in operation.

These and other objects will bereadily evident upon a study of thefollowing specification and the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exploded side elevation view showing diagrammatically thecomponents of the present invention, and

FIG. 2 is a similar view showing a modified form of the presentinvention.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, and more specifically to FIG. 1,the reference numeral represents a cooking utensil combination accordingto the present invention wherein a bottom pot 11 upon which there arefitted, one into the other, a plurality of upper pots, the uppermost potbeing enclosed by a lid 12.

The bottom pot 11 comprises a vessel having a relatively thick bottom 13which preferably should be approximately one quarter inch in thickness.The reason for this is that the bottom 13 is positioned adjacent theburner flames of a stove. Each of the upper pots l4,are provided with anupwardly arcuate bottom wall 15, the walls 15 having a plurality ofopenings 16 therethrough, the number of openings in the pots beingvaried so as to affect the speed of cooking the food containedtherewithin.

The bottom pot, as well as the upper pots are each provided with aperipheral recess 17 around the upper edge 18 thereof, the recesscomprising a seat into which the lower end of a pot thereabove may befitted. The uppermost pot recess 17 serves to receive the flange 18 ofthe lid 12.

Alternately, the flange 18 of the lid may be fitted over the upper edge19 of a metal bowl insert 20 which is receivable within the uppermostpot. A plurality of glass insert bowls 21 may be also included with thepresent invention, the glass insert bowls being placeable into the potsas shown for the purpose of holding various foods which are intended tobe cooked; the glass bowls being held by metal frames in the pots.

In operative use, a quantity of water 22 is positioned within the lowermost pot 11 while the upper pots 14 are each filled with various foodsfor being cooked. The lid 12 is placed upon the uppermost bowl insert oruppermost pot and the flame is put on the burner. When the water 22boils, the steam from the water is passed upwardly through the openingsfrom one pot to the next until at the uppermost pot 14, the steam ismoved outwardly through a steam escape opening 23 within the lid. Thesteam moving through the various pots will cook the different foodsplaced within each of the pots or within the glass insert bowls or metalinsert placed within the pots. Cooking odors will be held to a minimumas they are consumed within the steam passing through the assembly.There will be very little loss of nutritional value in the food and itrequires less time for a homemaker within the kitchen in preparingfoods. The fuel consumption for a single burner will save on fuel costs.All types of foods may be cooked, such as steamed clams in shell, rice,boiled eggs, potatoes, fresh vegetables, shrimp, dumplings, boiling orstewing chicken, boiling beef, heart, kidneys, liver, ham, spaghetti,macaroni, salad macaroni, all type of beans, crabmeat, scallops, fish,soups and other various foods.

As shown in FIG. 2 of the drawing, a generally connically configuratedinsert 24 having a plurality of openings 25 there through may becentrally positioned within one of the upper pots 14, the insert beingused for cooking fruit from which juice is to be extracted duringcooking process, the fruit being placed around the insert, and the juicedraining down into the glass bowl insert within the center of the pot.Thus a pure juice can be extracted by this method.

To make potato salad, the potatoes and eggs may be cooked in the samepot, by placing them preferably in the pot immediately above the bottompot where the active steam from the bottom pot will pass upwardly intothe pot and cook the potatoes and eggs.

The present type of cooking will promote better health for it provides acooking method of food which does not include frymg.

It is to be understood that the present invention may be made to includea built-in electrical heat unit which is attached to the bottom of thebottom pot, in the manner of a home french fryer, thereby eliminatingthe necessity of placing the invention on a stove burner.

What we now claim is:

1. In a combination of cooking utensils, the combination of a bottompot, and of series of upper pots for placement upon said bottom pot, anda lid for placement upon an uppennost of said pots, each of said potsabove said bottom pot having an upwardly concave bottom wall that isperforated, all of said pots being provided at their upper ends with aperipheral recess into which a lower end of a pot thereabove or said lidis receivable, certain of said pots having a removable glass bowl insertfitted thereinto, each of said glass bowl inserts including acylindrical sidewall and an upwardly concave bottom wall and being of asmaller diameter than the interior of said pot into which they arefitted, while an upper pot above said pots containing said inserts isprovided with a conically configurated insert compressing a conicalsidewall only with perforations therethrough.

k i I:

1. In a combination of cooking utensils, the combination of a bottompot, and of series of upper pots for placement upon said bottom pot, anda lid for placement upon an uppermost of said pots, each of said potsabove said bottom pot having an upwardly concave bottom wall that isperforated, all of said pots being provided at their upper ends with aperipheral recess into which a lower end of a pot thereabove or said lidis receivable, certain of said pots having a removable glass bowl insertfitted thereinto, each of said glass bowl inserts including acylindrical sidewall and an upwardly concave bottom wall and being of asmaller diameter than the interior of said pot into which they arefitted, while an upper pot above said pots containing said inserts isprovided with a conically configurated insert compressing a conicalsidewall only with perforations therethrough.